Iced tea (sometimes corrupted to ice tea) is a form of cold tea, often served in a glass with ice. It may or may not be sweetened. Iced tea is also a popular packaged drink. It can be mixed with flavored syrup, with common flavors including lemon, peach, raspberry, lime, and cherry. While most iced teas get their flavor from tea leaves (Camellia sinensis) , other herb-infused beverages are also sometimes served cold and referred to as iced tea. Unsweetened iced tea is sometimes made by a particularly long steeping of tea leaves at lower temperature (one hour in the sun versus 5 minutes at 80-100°C). Some people call this "sun tea". In addition, sometimes it is also left to stand overnight in the refrigerator.
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When is National Iced Tea Month Celebrated?
This drink holiday is celebrated in the United States every June.
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How is this Holiday Celebrated?
This holiday is celebrated by sharing a nice cold cup of iced tea with your friends and family.
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Origin of this Holiday
Our research did not find the creator, or the origin of this day. We did however find that this holiday has been celebrated for years. There is plenty of documentation to support that this holiday does indeed exist. This is referred to as a "National" day. However, we did not find any congressional records or presidential proclamations for this day. Even though we didn't, this is still a holiday to celebrate.
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We found recognition about this holiday from:
Calendar sites and personal Internet sites that blog and share information about this holiday. We especially found discussion on many drink related sites who celebrate drink holidays. (see links below)
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Iced Tea Varieties:
Iced tea is traditionally served with lemon slice used as a garnish, which is often placed on the rim of the glass. In the Southwest United States (or at least in restaurants with a Southwest theme), lime is also very popular (especially in Mexican restaurants). It is not entirely uncommon for establishments to put out slices of both lemon and lime for the customer to take for themselves.
Because of the varieties of eateries in the United States, as well as climatic and cultural differences, a variety of iced teas are available. Most prominent are:
- In barbecue, soul food, and Southern cuisine-style, establishments, along with greasy spoons and general eateries, black tea is iced. This is by far the most commonly available form of freshly brewed iced tea, to which the above statements apply. Fruit-flavored and herbal brewed iced take a close second.
- In some coffeehouses, more exotic varieties may be iced, such as Jasmine tea or Earl Grey tea.
- Thai iced tea is common in Thai restaurants.
- Iced Chai tea (spiced Indian tea) is available from some restaurants and stores. While not traditionally served iced, in the U.S. chai is frequently served iced, with honey as a sweetener, or pre-sweetened when bottled.
- Iced Jasmine tea, Genmaicha, and Hojicha are available from some Chinese cuisine or other Asian cuisine restaurants, but rarely. It is more common to find one of these varieties hot, where the patron may pour the tea over ice.
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Sweet tea is tea that is brewed very strong with a large amount of sugar added while the tea is still hot. The mixture of sugar and tea is then diluted with water, served over ice, and garnished with lemon. Sometimes the diluted mixture is allowed to cool to room temperature. Other times the sugar and tea mixture is not diluted at all but poured hot over a full tumbler of ice to cool and dilute it. Sweet tea is traditionally the most common variety of iced tea in the South; elsewhere, unsweetened iced tea is more common, although there has been a growing trend of offering both sweetened and unsweetened since the early 2000s.
Sun and "refrigerator" tea - Main Article: Sun Tea
Iced tea can also be brewed by placing tea bags (or loose tea) in a large glass container with water and leaving the container in the sun for a number of hours.
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Are there other Tea related holidays? YES!
- June 10th is National Iced Tea Day.
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Related Outside Links:
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Resources: This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses some material from Wikipedia/article icedtea/and other related pages. Top Photo by: homestead stock
